If you are like most gamers, you will have a backlog of games that you are not playing. These are games that you likely picked up on a sale or forgot to install. Maybe it’s a game you did install and you only played an hour or two and something about the game just didn’t click. Based on casual conversations with gamers, this is a common dilemma.
All that being said, this is a friendly reminder to venture back and re-install, or pick that game back up and give it another chance. I often find that a game can hit us at a time we’re not ready for it. Sometimes you’re in a headspace where you’re not receptive to a particular genre of gaming. Maybe you weren’t in a place where playing a MOBA was satisfying that gaming itch. And so you bounced off hard of a game that someone recommended to you because you too deep into a JRPG and wanted something with more narrative/story based game-play.
I recently re-installed No Man’s Sky. A game that is notorious for one of the most rocky releases. The developers have continued to make improvements, release expansions, patches, etc. And the game has followed through on what it originally promised.
When I originally installed it, I was a bit underwhelmed. It was this beautiful place but it was also very empty and it felt kind of soul-less. There was just this “lack” of things to do. There have been TWO major updates/expansions since the game was originally released and a third one is coming out later this week.
The game has so much more to offer. Multiplayer is a thing and you can game with others in outer-space if that is what you’re interested in. Base-building and resource gathering is the heart of this game but if you want to ignore all of that and search out the mysteries of the universe while conversing with aliens, that is an option too. There’s a bit of something for everybody and the game is always letting you know what you can do next (without making it feel like you have to).
I’m glad I went back and reconsidered this game. It might just be that I’m in this kind of mood where I’m wanting to farm in outer-space. Whatever it is, something about this game feels right and I’m glad I gave it another shot. I suspect that many of the games we have in our library are there for a reason, it’s not that we dislike the game, it’s that we dislike the time with which those games have entered our lives. We’re complex creatures and we cannot be everything at once. We’re fickle and we might like something one day and hate it the next, or vice versa.
Do yourself a favor and look through your games library and click that “install” button and give a game another chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Glass Cannon 